By KEVIN DONALD, JOURNALIST and RORY TINGLE, HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT and KATHERINE LAWTON, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER and PATRICK HARRINGTON, UK NEWS REPORTER
Published: 18:37 BST, 24 August 2026 | Updated: 08:19 BST, 25 August 2026
A throng of balaclava-clad youths set off flares and fireworks on Monday afternoon to remember the five A66 'joyriders' who died when they smashed into a police car.
The chaos came in stark contrast to a silent prayer vigil hosted in a nearby church to honour PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades, who were also tragically killed in the crash.
Friends and family of Jakub Matusiak, 23, decided to gather at a field in South Bank, Middlesborough, just yards from the scene of Saturday's catastrophic collision, caused by the gang hurtling the wrong way down the dual carriageway.
What began as a balloon release descended into a confusion of smoke and noise when attendees lit up the sky with flares and rockets.
A gang of around 20 masked youths on motorbikes and quad bikes roared around the field in honour of Matusiak, who himself had convictions for motoring offences.
Footage showed dozens of flares being held aloft, filling the field with dense orange fog, as bikes revved their engines and blared their horns.
Meanwhile, just down the road, locals mourning the lives of the two constables quietly filed into St John The Evangelist Church.
Among them was Redcar’s Labour MP Anna Turley, who said: 'I thought it was really important to come together. I was really pleased that the church has opened themselves up for the community to come together, because it's such a devastating incident.
Scores of people held orange flares aloft in a field in South Bank, Middlesborough, to mark the deaths of the five joyriders
A group of masked bikers tore around the field and joined in with the pyrotechnics
The memorial began as a balloon release but descended into noise and confusion
The vigil to remember the two constables who lost their lives was a much more sober affair
'The whole community here is reeling, and we've lost lives, particularly those lives of brave police officers who are out in action to keep us safe. It's a tragic incident.'